In today's complex network of routers, switches, servers, and UPS, it can be a daunting task to manage all the devices on a network and make sure they're not only up and running but also performing optimally. This is where Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) can help. SNMP was introduced in 1988 to meet the growing need for a standard for managing Internet Protocol (IP) devices.
Net-SNMP is a suite of software for using and deploying SNMP protocol (version v1, v2c, and v3) and AgentX subagent protocol. It supports IPv4, Ipv6, IPX, AAL5, UNIX domain sockets and others. The suite includes:
Command line applications
A generic client library
A graphical MIB browser using Perl/TK
A daemon application for receiving SNMP notifications (snmptrapd)
An extensible SNMP agent to respond to management queries (snmpd)
Perl, C, and Python modules and sets of APIs to build external applications
The root of the Net-SNMP goes all the way back to 1992; Steve Waldbusser of Carnegie-Mellon University started a freely available SNMP tool kit. Later, Wes Hardaker at University of California Davis took over the project. He extended the agent to provide more information about his local systems (a private precursor to the Host Resources MIB) and to flag certain error situations. He also added a simple way for the agent to run additional scripts and report the results, turning it into an extensible agent. In 1995, this code was made publicly available.